Thursday Bantering: Bits of Jays stuff

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you on the other side border. I hope you have a good day and find lots to be thankful for. I’m thankful that there is football on TV.

There isn’t a lot for Blue Jays news (I’m just copying and pasting that line for the start of all posts).

Shi Davidi tells us that the Jays had interest in Jake Odorizzi and Kyle Gibson, even making an offer to Gibson. I doubt we’ll ever find out if the offer was as good as the one he accepted from the Rangers.

He also says they will try to work out a deal with Matt Shoemakers before Monday’s tender deadline. They would much rather not go to arbitration with him.

Beyond that:

To get anything done, however, the Blue Jays are going to have to overpay and a question for them to wrestle with is whether it’s better to spend big on someone who could make a significant difference or to limit risk overpaying a smaller amount on someone with less upside.

That must be hard to factor into negotiations, how much do you figure on overpaying for a free agent?

I do like this quote:

Even in this era of stifled free agency, the words of Andrew Friedman, the Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations, during the 2016 winter meetings ring true: “If you’re always rational about every free agent, you will finish third on every free agent.”

As much as we don’t like to think so, we agents have to be offered a little more money to play on this side of the border and, of course, most of the top free agents don’t want to sign with a rebuilding team.

A former Blue Jay heading to Korean.

Good luck Nick.

Kaitlyn McGrath, in the Athletic, takes a look at Japanese player Yoshitomo Tsutsugo who has been posted by the Yokohama DeNA BayStars. He’s a left-handed hitting first baseman/left fielder/third baseman (I’m thinking far more likely first baseman or DH here).

Over his 10-year career in Japan, Tsutsugo has hit .285 with a .910 OPS and 205 home runs. As for the rest of his game, he’s not known for his baserunning skills, thanks to his stocky, 6-foot, 210-pound build. Defensively, he’s spent most of his time in left field, but he also has experience at first and third base. He’s not considered a plus-defender at any position.

It is tough to guess if the power will translate to the MLB, but I think it would be worth taking a look at him.

Not baseball but Jordan Heath-Rawlings and Jeff Blair have stuff to say about abusive hockey coaches. I’m hoping that hockey stops paying coaches who are bullies.